Projects in progress

Faculty involved: Psychology
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinators: Professor Livia Cadei; Professor Emanuele Serrelli

The project is addressed to university students enrolled in the course General Pedagogy and involves collaboration with Casa Delbrèl, one of the main social hubs of the Fondazione Punto Missione, active in the province of Brescia.

Located in a former convent, Casa Delbrèl is a space for reception, educational support, and social promotion addressed to individuals and families in situations of vulnerability, within an open community context characterised by practices of coexistence and reciprocity inspired by the thought of Madeleine Delbrèl. The centre offers a range of educational and social services, including reception for women with children in educational housing pathways, a domestic violence support centre, reception for asylum seekers in collaboration with local organisations, a social tailoring workshop, an Italian language school for migrants, educational and social spaces for families and children, and employment orientation pathways.

Students are involved in a Service Learning experience that integrates community service, educational observation, and pedagogical reflection. Activities take place directly at Casa Delbrèl and may take different forms depending on the needs of the services and the students’ competences: academic and language support, educational and recreational activities with children, collaboration in the daily activities of the centre, participation in social tailoring workshops, support in CV writing and job orientation, cultural animation activities, and moments of social interaction with residents. The pathway is not rigidly predefined but is co-designed by students and the host organisation through processes of observation, listening, and shared planning, valuing student agency and responsiveness to real contextual needs.

Service Learning Objectives

The project promotes experiential learning grounded in key pedagogical themes, including the educational relationship, educational distance, symmetry and asymmetry in educational processes, emancipation, autonomy and dependency, tradition and innovation, education and formation.

The experience fosters the development of reflective thinking through observation, questioning, doubt, experimentation, and dialogue, enhancing the relationship between language, lived experience, and theoretical understanding. Particular attention is given to processes of meaning-making, with reference to values such as gift, social participation, inclusion, volunteering, universalism, and educational utopia.

The project enables students to experience directly the educational dimension of service to the community, developing relational, planning, and reflective competences within a context of social vulnerability and high educational value.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place in the second semester of the academic year 2025/2026, between March and May. It begins with a presentation and enrolment phase (March 2026), followed by an initial planning meeting involving students and the host organisation. Subsequently, the project activities are co-designed by students and Casa Delbrèl staff through a collaborative planning process.

Operational activities take place until mid-May 2026 at Casa Delbrèl and include individual and/or small-group interventions, supported by a personal reflective journal. The project also includes formative debriefing sessions both at the centre and at the university, aimed at pedagogical and theoretical re-elaboration of the experience.

Faculty involved: Arts and Philosophy
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professr Massimo Locatelli

The Service Learning project offers students the opportunity to engage with the Museo Diocesano of Brescia, an important cultural institution in the region, by observing a model of cultural planning aimed at enhancing artistic heritage and promoting its role in serving the community.

Students are involved in audiovisual production activities aimed at creating videos and digital communication materials for the Museum. Through meetings with communication staff and exhibition curators, the project enables students to enter into direct dialogue with cultural promotion practices and to deepen their understanding of the relationship between art, institutions, and the local territory.

Guided by lecturers, students follow the entire audiovisual production process — conception, production, and post-production — creating videos on artworks and interviews with artists and curators. The work includes moments of exchange with the Museum as well as critical reflection on the produced materials, which are then made available to the institution to support and enhance its cultural communication strategies.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to develop students’ competences in audiovisual communication applied to the cultural sector, fostering the integration of theoretical knowledge and professional practice. The experience allows students to engage with the full video production process within a real museum institution, strengthening their skills in conception, production, and post-production of multimedia content.

At the same time, the project encourages reflection on the role of culture as a service to the community and on the relationship between cultural institutions and the local territory. Students also develop relational and collaborative skills through interaction with museum professionals and lecturers, as well as the ability to translate complex cultural content into accessible and effective communication languages.

Duration and Organization

The project is structured into two video production workshops taking place between March and May 2026, integrated within the courses Audiovisual Production and Post-production and combined with students’ independent work (case study analysis, pre-production, and post-production).

Faculty involved: Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinators: Professor Marina Villa; Professor Maria Chiara Tarsi

The Service Learning project involves students in a formative experience developed in collaboration with incarcerated individuals engaged in the editorial work of the newspaper Zona 508, within the prisons of Brescia, as part of an ongoing partnership with the "Carcere e Territorio" association.

The initiative is designed as a learning experience based on encounter and dialogue, in which university students and incarcerated contributors share a pathway of reading, writing, and reflection. The work begins with the reading of selected literary texts and continues through joint discussion sessions involving students, incarcerated editors, and volunteers, during which emotions, interpretations, and reflections arising from the texts are shared.

In parallel, students collaborate directly with the editorial team of Zona 508 in the production of a special issue of the newspaper dedicated to the theme “Literature and Emotions”. The editorial work is carried out together with the incarcerated editors, with whom students share the processes of writing, selection of materials, and content re-elaboration, gaining insight into both the potential and the challenges of prison-based journalism and social communication. The project concludes with a public presentation of the final issue, attended by students, incarcerated editors, volunteers, and project coordinators.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to promote a conscious and reflective use of the Italian language through engagement with literature and the communicative experience of the prison context. Students are involved in a shared process with incarcerated individuals, in which reading and the re-elaboration of emotions and meanings take place in a dialogical and reciprocal form, valuing the plurality of interpretations and experiences.

The experience enables the development of analytical, writing, and critical re-elaboration skills, while also fostering awareness of the dynamics of social journalism and communication in complex contexts such as the prison system. Direct interaction with incarcerated editors also allows students to question stereotypes and prejudices, contributing to a more nuanced and informed understanding of detention realities.

From a civic and educational perspective, the project promotes active and responsible participation in community life, recognising culture and communication as fundamental tools for relationship-building, inclusion, and social transformation.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place between March and May 2026, with a total workload of approximately 20 hours. Activities include both in-person and online meetings, held at the university and in prison, and consist of shared reading sessions, editorial work with Zona 508, meetings with volunteers and field experts, and critical reflection on the experience. The project concludes with a public event presenting the special issue produced, as a moment of restitution to both the academic and wider community.

Involved faculty: Education
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Alessandra Gerolin

The Service Learning project involves Master’s students in Educational Design and Human Resource Training in collaboration with Laboratorio Taivè in Milan, a Caritas-supported initiative offering training and employment opportunities to women in vulnerable situations through a tailoring workshop.

Students engage directly with the women involved in the project during the workshop’s opening hours, participating in shared activities and fostering a dialogue based on equality. Through this interaction, they explore personal and professional development pathways grounded in the expansion of capabilities and substantive freedoms. The project responds to the participants’ need to narrate their experiences, be recognised in their growth process, and share the outcomes of their journey, including its challenges.

Students co-develop a narrative ethics workshop aimed at reconstructing the history of the Taivè project from its origins to the present. The outcomes will contribute to a publication and are presented in a final public event, creating a shared space for reflection between academia and the local community.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to apply philosophical competencies related to capability development and substantive freedoms within a real-life context. Through dialogue and listening practices, students develop an interpretative understanding of desire as a search for meaning and recognition. The experience fosters reflection on emancipatory action, its possibilities and limitations, and supports the development of narrative and reflective skills through the co-construction of a shared ethical narrative.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place mainly in April and includes three onsite sessions at the Taivè workshop, alongside preparatory activities and narrative ethics workshop development. The project concludes with a public final event on 14 May 2026.

Involved faculty: Education
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinators: Professor Paola Zini; Professor Alessandra Gerolin

The Service Learning project involves university students in collaboration with "Nuovo Cortile", a day centre working with preadolescents and adolescents in educational settings. The pathway begins in the classroom, where students meet the service coordinator and are introduced to the educational context, needs, and challenges of the centre. Based on this initial input, students are asked to design educational interventions that integrate theory and practice.

The experience continues in the field, where students participate in daily activities such as welcoming young people, supporting expressive workshops (e.g. photography and theatre readings), assisting with study activities, and accompanying educational outings. Students also take part, in an observational role, in team meetings, gaining insight into professional practices of needs assessment and educational environment management. The project includes structured reflection sessions in class and concludes with a public presentation of the experience involving representatives of the organisation.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to deepen understanding of the educational needs of preadolescents and adolescents while allowing students to experience the educator’s role in practice. Students develop observational skills to identify group dynamics, resources, and critical issues within educational settings, while also engaging with ethical dilemmas such as rules versus freedom or autonomy versus dependency. Particular attention is given to interpreting desire in context as a search for meaning and recognition, and to designing activities that promote participation and agency. The project also fosters reflective and critical competencies through guided discussion with lecturers.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place in the second semester of the 2025/2026 academic year, between March and April. It includes classroom-based design activities followed by fieldwork at the centre, organised across different weekly sessions (welcome activities, workshops, team meetings, and educational support). Reflection sessions are integrated throughout the course, and the experience concludes with a final public presentation.

Involved faculty: Education
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Michele Fontefrancesco

The Service Learning project involves university students in collaboration with the editorial board of Missioneoggi, a journal engaged in contemporary anthropological reflection and cultural dissemination. Students take part in editorial and cultural activities, contributing to the scientific editing of content and to the design of public-oriented initiatives.

The experience begins with a scientific curatorial phase focused on the section “Quale antropologia” (Which anthropology), involving the analysis, indexing, and synthesis of articles, also aimed at the production of a thematic volume. This phase allows students to engage with the journal’s scientific output while enhancing collaboration with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and its faculty members. Subsequently, students become actively involved in editorial life, contributing to the co-design of cultural activities and innovative communication formats addressed to local communities and younger audiences.

The project takes place in an intergenerational and interdisciplinary environment where the dialogue between university and the third sector becomes a key element of the learning process.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to enhance students’ skills by placing them in a real editorial context while promoting scientific reflection and cultural dissemination in contemporary anthropology. Through direct participation in editorial activities, students develop practical skills in writing, summarising, and indexing academic content, as well as transversal skills related to teamwork, communication, and cultural project design. The experience also fosters critical and interdisciplinary thinking and strengthens students’ ability to engage in professional environments and contribute to cultural promotion.

Duration and Organization

The project lasts 3 months, with an average commitment of approximately 3 hours per week, from March to May 2026. Activities are carried out in close collaboration with the editorial team, alternating individual work with participation in group meetings. A final written report and reflective analysis of the experience are required at the end of the project.

Involved faculty: Mathematical, physical and natural sciences
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Stefania Pagliara; Professor Giulia Giantesio

The Service Learning project involves students enrolled in the Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and the Master’s degree in Mathematics and Physics in an educational experience addressed to secondary school students hospitalized in the pediatric wards of the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, within the Hospital School context.

The project begins with a design phase, during which university students revisit disciplinary content — such as tessellations, statistics, solid geometry, and physical phenomena — and translate it into accessible and engaging laboratory-based and playful activities.

Students are then asked to design and implement mathematical games and physics experiments aimed at stimulating curiosity, logical reasoning, and the pleasure of scientific discovery, adapting them to the age and conditions of the children involved. Activities are carried out in small groups or, when necessary, in individual settings, with particular attention to patients’ fragility and needs. In this context, learning becomes a shared experience that integrates cognitive and emotional dimensions, turning the educational moment into a space of relationship, discovery, and support.

Service Learning objectives

The project aims to develop students’ ability to communicate mathematical and physical content clearly and effectively through a laboratory-based approach, while also promoting the design of flexible and inclusive learning environments. Students are supported in experimenting with group management and in implementing individualized interventions, learning to interact attentively and respectfully with children in vulnerable situations. At the same time, the project contributes to generating a positive impact on beneficiaries by fostering curiosity, self-esteem, and a more dynamic and “experiential” perception of scientific disciplines, while also promoting collaboration and positive thinking even in the complex hospital context.

Duration and Organization

The project is structured in an initial design phase scheduled for November and December 2025, followed by the implementation of activities between March, April, and May 2026, in agreement with the Hospital School teachers. The total workload is approximately 40 hours, and includes both preparatory work and direct activities with the students in the hospital settings.

Involved faculty: Education
Campus: Piacenza
Project coordinators: Professor Elisabetta Musi; Professor Antonella Arioli

The Service Learning project involves students in the co-design and implementation of a training pathway developed in collaboration with the Police Headquarters (Questura) and the Prefecture of Piacenza. The project is aimed at personnel working at immigration offices who interact daily with foreign citizens. It is based on the identification of training needs expressed by operators and follows an experiential learning approach (learning by doing), integrating cognitive and emotional dimensions.

Students actively participate in all phases of the project — from design to delivery and monitoring — taking part in both online and in-person meetings with the professionals responsible for the training pathway. Their role includes observing relational and communicative dynamics, supporting the preparation of training materials, and analysing the co-construction processes of the educational intervention. A specific focus is placed on meta-communication: students contribute to its observation and analysis through structured tools and help refine the training process in progress. The experience is complemented by guided reflection sessions with university lecturers and is shared with peers enrolled in the same degree programmes.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to promote the understanding and practice of participatory training design processes grounded in real professional needs. Students are given the opportunity to apply active listening, observation, and documentation skills while contributing to the development of a real training intervention. The experience fosters critical and reflective competencies, particularly regarding relational, communicative, and emotional dynamics involved in work with migrant populations, helping to challenge stereotypes and prejudices. In this perspective, the project also serves as an opportunity to develop civic skills and responsible participation in community life.

Duration and Organization

The project runs from December 2025 to June 2026, with a flexible workload of approximately 20 hours, distributed across design meetings, participation in training activities, and monitoring and reflection sessions. The pathway is integrated into the academic courses involved and includes moments of collective sharing and final debriefing of the experience.

Faculty involved: Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Dr. Enrica Peracin

The Service Learning project is offered within the course "Chinese language and culture" and involves an educational activity addressed to Chinese-speaking pupils attending primary and lower secondary schools at the Cesare Arici Institute.

The initiative is designed as a situated learning experience in which the linguistic and cultural competences of university students are used to support a pathway of language acquisition and linguistic mediation, aimed at fostering the social and school inclusion of the pupils involved. University students consistently accompany the same pupils throughout the duration of the project, providing personalised and individualised support both during curricular hours and in workshop settings.

Activities include support for Italian language acquisition, linguistic mediation across school subjects, and the implementation of educational and intercultural activities such as workshops, lessons, and exchange-based learning experiences. A basic Chinese language course for the school students is also planned, in a spirit of reciprocity and intercultural dialogue.

The experience is characterised by a strong integration of teaching activities, educational relationships, and the development of active citizenship pathways.

Service Learning Objectives

The project aims to enhance the linguistic and cultural competences of university students, allowing them to apply these skills in a real educational context outside the classroom. The experience fosters the development of Chinese language proficiency through dialogue with Chinese-speaking pupils and the design of teaching materials, while also encouraging reflection on the structural differences between Chinese and Italian and their pedagogical implications.

The project also promotes transversal competences related to collaboration with university and school teachers, educational planning, and the development of effective relationships in intercultural contexts. From a citizenship perspective, the experience contributes to a deeper awareness of the integration challenges faced by Chinese-speaking pupils and encourages attitudes of openness, support, and respect for cultural otherness.

For the beneficiary students, the project promotes the development of Italian language skills, communicative autonomy, and active participation in school and social life, contributing to educational success and inclusion.

Duration and Organisation

The project includes a preliminary training phase for university students and school staff, during which the Service Learning approach and the operational aspects of the intervention are presented. The activities then take place during the implementation period, with a weekly commitment ranging from 3 to 5 hours, for a total of approximately 25 hours per participant.

Faculty involved: Arts and Philosophy
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Massimo Locatelli

The project involves students from the DAMS degree programme in a collaboration with the Area Pastorale per la Mondialità of the Diocese of Brescia, a key institution within the city’s social fabric.

Throughout the project, students have the opportunity to meet the Diocese’s communication managers. Guided by their instructors and by the representatives of the Pastoral Area, they produce video interviews with young second-generation peers, following all phases of the creative process: from ideation — which includes dialogue with artists and museum institutions — to production, and finally post-production, a phase that requires strong analytical and reflective skills.

All materials produced will be made available to the Diocese to strengthen the communication of its initiatives.

Work in the field of intercultural communication takes the form of a pathway aimed at fostering dialogue and socio-cultural engagement, in support of the institutions active in this field. Students are accompanied in a continuous reflection on the impact of their work throughout the entire project.

Service Learning Objectives

• Observe and understand a model of intercultural dialogue within the local context: the communication activities of the Diocese of Brescia – Area Pastorale per la Mondialità.
• Engage in service to the city’s cultural institutions by producing videodocumentaries and materials for social media.
• Reflect on the themes proposed by the Diocese of Brescia – Area Pastorale per la Mondialità, with particular attention to active intercultural engagement.

Duration and Organisation

Activities take place during the first semester, within the Audiovisual Production and Post-production workshops. Each workshop includes 30 hours of work with the instructor and 20 hours of independent work dedicated to case study analysis, pre-production, and post-production.

Involved faculty: Psychology
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Livia Cadei

The Service Learning project is offered within the course “Pedagogy of social processes” and builds on the collaboration, already initiated in the 2024/2025 academic year, with the volunteer association Perlar, which supports homeless individuals in Brescia. The mission of this organization is to promote and strengthen the creation of authentic relationships and inclusive communities by offering social and recreational activities, including:

• The daytime center “Riparo”
• The second-hand market “Poco conto”, managed by volunteers and by people experiencing homelessness

Students participating in the project support Perlar’s operators and volunteers in carrying out the various initiatives, gaining experience in strengthening relational networks and facilitating the encounter between homeless individuals and volunteers. In parallel, they engage in a process of reflection on their formative experience by writing a thematic reflective diary and participating in discussion meetings both at the University and with the association’s staff.

Service Learning Objectives

The experiential learning process focuses on the following themes:

• Pedagogical themes and concepts: relationship, educational distance, symmetry/asymmetry, emancipation, tradition/innovation, autonomy/dependence, education/formation/animation.
• Elements of reflective thinking: observation, doubt, questioning, experimentation, comparison and language, hypotheses, concrete/abstract, play/work.
• Training methodologies: context analysis, planning, facilitation, communication, teamwork, evaluation.
• Meaning-making processes: values, gift, utopia, universalism, volunteering, inclusion, social participation.

Duration and Organization

The activities take place from November to December 2025. University students, organized in pairs, are involved in the association’s services during opening hours and on public holidays throughout the Christmas period.

Faculty involved: Education
Campus: Brescia
Project coordinator: Professor Monica Amadini

The project involves students from the course “Social and Intercultural Pedagogy” in an applied research activity on the condition of people experiencing homelessness, integrating theoretical training, participatory planning, and fieldwork.

The experience is part of the European homelessness census, aimed at producing reliable data for the development of effective public policies. It is carried out through a structured collaboration with fio.PSD ETS and the University of Catania and, in the Brescia area, with the Social Cooperative La Rete.

Phase I – Co-Planning

Students participate in the needs assessment of the homeless population and in the shared definition of the project objectives, through guided activities during lessons and preliminary training.

Phase II – Specialized Training

A targeted methodological and ethical preparation is provided, including practical exercises on interaction techniques and on the administration of research tools.

Phase III – Fieldwork

Working within multidisciplinary teams, students:

• take part in daily coordination meetings,
• visit services and urban areas frequented by people experiencing homelessness,
• participate in data collection,
• use ethnographic tools co-designed during the course.

Activities begin at the daytime center “L’Angolo” in Brescia and take place across the various data collection sites in the city.

Phase IV – Analysis and Dissemination

The project concludes with structured debriefing sessions, sharing of results in class, and the co-design of a public seminar on homelessness (12 December 2025), organized as an interactive workshop.

Service Learning Objectives

• Develop critical analysis skills regarding social needs through participatory community assessment methods.
• Acquire operational skills in applied social research and data collection with vulnerable populations.
• Experiment with professional interaction techniques with people experiencing severe social marginalization.
• Develop skills in multidisciplinary teamwork and in coordinating socio-educational projects.
• Actively contribute to the production of scientific knowledge through data collection for the European comparative research project.
• Build civic awareness of fundamental human rights and social inclusion policies.

Duration and Organization

The project takes place from September to December 2025, for a total of 20 hours.
Preparatory training, scheduled at the beginning of October, is followed by three fieldwork days during which students engage in data collection and observation activities in the designated services and urban spaces.
The final phase, dedicated to data analysis and dissemination, takes place in November and December 2025.

Involved faculty: Economics and Law
Campus: Piacenza
Project coordinators: Professor Roberta Casiraghi; Professor Francesco Centonze; Professor Priscilla Bertelloni

This project is the result of a collaboration between the University and the Piacenza Correctional Facility. It is structured into two main phases:

1. Front office activities: University students, adequately trained and accompanied by a faculty supervisor, enter the correctional facility to collect requests from inmates.
2. Analysis and research activities: At the University, participating students examine the legal issues raised, identify best practices, and, where possible, draft legal petitions. They work in groups, sharing their experiences and conducting legal and jurisprudential research.

The project also includes opportunities for discussion with the Interuniversity Center "L'altro diritto" and other legal clinics operating in various Italian prisons. These meetings allow for an analysis of the results achieved, reflection on the objectives met and challenges encountered, and improvements to the educational path offered to students.

Service Learning objectives

• The project provides students with an experiential learning opportunity aimed at:
• Deepening their theoretical and practical knowledge of criminal law.
• Developing practical skills in criminal procedure law.
• Gaining direct exposure to the prison system.
• Acquiring expertise in drafting legal documents.
• Experiencing a formative journey on both a human and social level.
• Applying their skills to support a vulnerable group, offering listening and assistance to inmates.
• Overcoming prejudices and stereotypes associated with individuals deprived of their liberty.

Duration and organization

The project spans an entire academic year, starting in late September 2025 and concluding in late July 2025. Students, organized into rotating shifts, alternate between a two-hour session in prison and a one-and-a-half-hour session in the classroom.